A highlight of the Pine Valley Open Space Park is a walk along the North Fork of the South Platte River.

Don’t blink or you’ll miss it, but what the tiny town of Pine Grove lacks in size, it makes up for in charm.

Three years ago Pine Grove successfully petitioned to return Pine — which it had been called since sometime before 1920 — to the name it was given when it came to be in 1886, but either way, it’s an apt moniker, because the surrounding forests make a trip to this area southwest of Denver a visual delight.

The Pine Emporium (16714 County Road 126, 303-838-5150) is part antiques shop, part art gallery, part thrift store and all fun, one of those places where it’s easy to find that four hours have passed when you thought you’d been poking around for 15 minutes in the dishes, locally made pottery, vintage linens, knick knacks, jewelry, clothes, furniture, books…the list goes on and on.

Travel and OutWest editor Kyle Wagner grew up in Pittsburgh and lived in Lake County, Ill., and Naples, Fla., before moving to Denver in 1993, where she reviewed restaurants for Westword before moving to The Denver Post in 2002. She considers the best days to be those that involve her teenage daughters and doing something outside, preferably mountain biking or whitewater rafting.

Dean Krakel is a photo editor (primarily sports) at The Denver Post. A native of Wyoming, he has authored three books, "Season of the Elk," "Downriver" and "Krakel's West." An avid kayaker, rafter, mountain biker, trail runner, telemark skier and backpacker, Dean's outdoor adventures have taken him around the world.

Douglas Brown was raised about 30 miles west of Philadelphia in West Chester, Pennsylvania, where he spent a lot of time running around in the woods and fields (where he hunted and explored), and in the ocean (where he surfed and stared at the horizon). Now he lives in Boulder and spends as much time hiking, running, skiing and boarding the High Country (and the Boulder foothills) as possible.

Ricardo Baca is the entertainment editor and pop music critic at The Denver Post, as well as the founder and executive editor of Reverb and the co-founder of The UMS. Happy days often involve at least one of these: whitewater rafting, snowshoeing, vintage Vespas, writing, camping, live music, road trips, snowboarding or four-wheeling.